Ah, Saludos Amigos, also known as the film that got me a little bent out of shape when it comes to censorship. I don’t know I find it akin to saying “Hey, that Mona Lisa chick looks a little down. Let’s put a smile on that gal’s face huh? It fits in better with the modern audience at the Louvre.” I readily admit that it’s a different thought now, that art is protected by business and industry not just by the person that creates it. It still grates my cheese, however.
I always have a hard time when features have live action segments. As someone that has seen films from the era, I should not be surprised that the film is broken up in a sort of documentary. I think part of my feeling is that in those days, there was no real spontaneity in those kinds of segments. Film was expensive and every shot, every second of film was discussed and planned for use as a feature. So I know it’s sort of unreal and that it’s trying to be representative of the era but not “reality” either. The film is comprised of four segments:
Lake Titicaca
This one features Donald Duck in what I would like call the “overly narrated” short that was popular at the time. Wikipedia calls this “The How to…” series and it is most often associated with Goofy (just like the segment El Gaucho Goofy). This short shows Donald visiting the local sights of Peru and some hilarity with a llama.
Pedro
This made me think of the Tex Avery MGM cartoons, where the car and the planes had these individual personalities like featured in Pixar’s Cars franchise. However, this film came out in 1942, and the cartons that I am thinking of were One Cab’s Family (1952) and Little Johnny Jet (1953). Avery would have still been Warner Brothers back then. I’m not sure who inspired who here. This segment was the inspiration for one of Latin America’s beloved characters, Condorito. The artist René Ríos Boettiger thought that Pedro (the airplane that goes on his first solo mission over the Andes) was a naïve perception of the people of Chile.
El Gaucho Goofy
This is a segment in the “The How to…” series that shows Goofy how to be a gaucho instead of a cowboy.
Aquarela do Brasil
“Watercolor of Brazil” is a dance segment with Donald Duck and José Carioca (a loveable “scoundrel”) where Donald is shown the fun of the nightlife in Brazil. While José Carioca only appears again on film for American audiences in The Three Caballeros and Melody Time, his popularity in Latin American countries has remained strong. This includes the creation of nephews and a long standing girlfriend and a rooster villain to tell stories in comic form.
There is an excellent documentary produced by the Walt Disney Family Foundation called Walt and El Grupo that documents the goodwill tour of Latin America that Walt Disney and core group of his artists took in early 1941 before the United States entry into World War II. I’m glad that I watched this in conjunction with Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros. It gives me an idea how the international community treated him at the time as well as the reasons and genesis for the Latin American films. The whole trip itself comes at an interesting time and really crystalizes how much the economy of entertainment was hurt during times of war. There is also moderate discussion about the strike at the studios, a personal turning point for Walt himself. The thing that I take away from this is: what ideas were compromised because World War II? What kind of art would have the Disney Studios produced if they were insulated from outside forces? This is a question that can never be reasonably answered.
The goodwill tour was financed by the United States Department of State and any production realized from this tour was given federal loan guarantees. This was a working tour and though it would be impolite to say at the time, the studio needed the money. After the success of Snow White, the Disney Animation Studios were built and two features put into production: Pinocchio and Fantasia. Both one of the films failed to gross as much money as Snow White and the main reason was timing. The European entertainment market was closed to them due to the war and this hindered cash flow to the studio. American military officials were concerned that Latin American countries were susceptible to the influence of Nazi Germany. While the United States as a political machine had no influence, American entertainment and art did. Walt Disney coming to meet the people (and premiere Fantasia to the market) gave an opportunity to defect undesired European influences. Watching this film and understanding that it is propaganda device gives it a weight that makes me appreciate the work more than I thought I would.